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This article is more than 1 year old
Linux kernel backdoor blocked
Hints at smarter hacks
Software developers on Wednesday detected and thwarted a hacker's scheme to submerge a slick backdoor in the next version of the Linux kernel, but security experts say the abortive caper proves that extremely subtle source code tampering is more than just the stuff of paranoid speculation.
The backdoor was a two-line addition to a development copy of the Linux kernel's source code, carefully crafted to look like a harmless error-checking feature added to the wait4() system call - a function that's available to any program running on the computer, and which, roughly, tells the operating system to pause execution of that program until another program has finished its work.
Under casual inspection, the code appears to check if a program calling wait4() is using a particular invalid combination of two flags, and if the user invoking it is the computer's all-powerful root account. If both conditions are true, it aborts the call.
But up close, the code doesn't actually check if the user is root at all. If it sees the flags, it grants the process root privileges, turning wait4() into an instant doorway to complete control of any machine, if the hacker knows the right combinations of flags.
That difference between what the code looks like and what it actually is - that is, between assignment and comparison - is a matter of a single equal sign in the C programming language, making it easy to overlook. If the addition had been detected in a normal code review, the backdoor could even have been mistaken for a programming error - no different from the buffer overflows that wind up in Microsoft products on a routine basis. "It's indistinguishable from an accidental bug," says security consultant Ryan Russell. "So unless you have a reason to be suspicious, and go back and find out if it was legitimately checked in, that's going to be a long trail to follow."
Investigation Underway
In all, the unknown hacker used exactly the sort of misdirection and semantic trickery that security professionals talk about over beer after a conference, while opining on how clumsy the few discovered source code backdoors have been, and how a real cyber warrior would write one.
"That's the kind of pub talk that you end up having," says BindView security researcher Mark 'Simple Nomad' Loveless. "If you were the NSA, how would you backdoor someone's software? You'd put in the changes subtly. Very subtly."
"Whoever did this knew what they were doing," says Larry McVoy, founder of San Francisco-based BitMover, which hosts the Linux kernel development site that was compromised. "They had to find some flags that could be passed to the system without causing an error, and yet are not normally passed together... There isn't any way that somebody could casually come in, not know about Unix, not know the Linux kernel code, and make this change. Not a chance."
However sophisticated, the hack fell apart Wednesday, when a routine file integrity check told McVoy that someone had manually changed a copy of a kernel source code file that's normally only modified by an automated process, specifically one that pulls the code from BitMover's BitKeeper software collaboration tool and repackages it for the open source CVS system still favored by some developers.
Even then, McVoy didn't initially recognize the change as a backdoor, and he announced to the Linux kernel developers list as a procedural annoyance. Other programmers soon figured out the trick, and by Thursday an investigation into how the development site was compromised was underway, headed by Linux chief Linus Torvalds, according to McVoy.
If BitMover didn't run automated integrity checks, the backdoor could have made it into the official release of version 2.6 of the kernel, and eventually into every up-to-date Linux machine on the Internet. But to get there a kernel developer using CVS would have to have used the modified file as the basis for further development, then submitted it to the main BitKeeper repository through Torvalds.
"If it had gotten out, it could have been really bad, because any Linux kernel that had this in it, anybody who had access to that machine could become root," says McVoy. But even then, he's convinced it wouldn't have lasted long. "If someone started getting root with it, some smart kid would figure out what was going on."
But Loveless says the hack is a glimpse of a more sophisticated computer underground than is normally talked about, and fuel for speculation that backdoors in software products are far more common than imagined. "We've had bad examples of [backdoors], and we've had rumors of extremely good examples," says Loveless. "This is a concrete example of a good one."


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Debi Farber Bush: Debi Is Getting Punchy, And It Hurts So Good – May 3, 2011
I'm so excited 'cause today was a super-big day – not only did I get to sleep in until 5 a.m., but I met my friend/Personal Trainer Eric Cranage at Martial Athletics and as he promised, he taught me how to kick some major ass!
Martial Athletics is the wayyyy cool place located directly across the street from Jacoby Creek School. A specialized non-conventional gym that's owned by Stan Snider and Vince Romo and provides one-on-one training. Martial Athletics is sorta like being under a "Big Top" but instead of a Big Top, you're under a dome. Speed bags and heavy bags are everywhere you look along with ropes haning from the ceiling, (there's not a chance in hell that Eric would make me climb up there 'cause after-all, I'm just learning to pick myself up off the floor).
They also have mats, weights and lots of other work-out stuff. Because this place is soooooo citified, urban and cool. I'm so ready to have some fun! Andy, my "other friend and trainer," was supposed to box with us this morning but pulled a no-show, he said that he hurt his ribs while playin' soccer – likely story! I think that subconsciously he's afraid to challenge me while I have the boxing gloves on!
Although Eric and I have boxed before, I promised him that this time I'd really try to be more focused and am wondering where the damn Ritalin is when I need it? I must admit, last time I had the gloves on, I was more interested in how my hands looked in them, how much sweat was starting to accumulate at the fingers and how my head was itching and I couldn't get the gloves off fast enough to scratch it!
Growing up in Michigan, I can remember getting all my ski gear on and then having to go to the bathroom. Same concept. Anyways I'm assuming that after attending Boot Camp soooo many times and doing lots of cardio I'm definitely more prepared for whatever torture Eric had in store for me, I believe that he's gonna make me work super hard. My clothing attire shouldn't be soooo hard to pick out, after all, it's a boxing gym and nobody really gives a crap if my shirt has bleach stains on it or that my pants are saggy.
I was told to "get on the tread mill" for a warmup. OK, I can do that and I'm feeling so amped up, I just wanna punch something. Most likely it will be Eric since he has that little twinkle in his eye that says "Debi, I'm so gonna kick your ass today." While on the treadmill I noticed some old tires with straps on them, some weighing in excess of 300 lbs. Not liking to get my hands dirty and never having changed a tire in my life cause I'm a princess, I wasn't sure what the tires were all about. As Eric pointed to them, those first thoughts of why why why entered my brain.
Eric strapped a tire around my waist and told me to run, I didn't realize that the strap was kinda springy like a bungee cord and upon taking off, I sprang right back in like a boomerang! The next tire was smaller and when he strapped that one to my waist, it actually moved, I was thinking that I was at the gym to lose my spare tire, not gain one!
As our workout continued, he directed me over to the speed bag. Since I'm a shrimp, I get to stand up on a step, easy enough, I can do that! My troubles begin as he shows me how to hold my hands and hit the bag. Yet another exercise where you need to have "the rhythm" which I don't have!
I'm in an urban environment so I have hope… I can feel the beat… Nope, not really but I'm tryin'! Eric counts for me, "1 2 3 4… other left hand." He senses my frustration and decides it's time to do something else. Thoughts of why why why are racing through my mind. Plzzzzz Eric, I'll do anything but not Andy's planks!
Then finally it happens – Eric straps his personal gloves to my hands (not to be confused with mittens cause they don't have spots for your fingers) and doesn't seem to care that I'm about to fill 'em with sweat! I cared a little bit that they were red because purple is my favorite color, but I endured. He showed me how to stand, and what to do with my form, so far, so good.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a poster of Sugar Ray and wanna perform just like him, but without the skimpy outfit of course. I wonder if he started in a place like this?
Eric puts some pads on his hands (otherwise know as Focus Mitts) and the real fun begins. I punch, hit, jab, hook and uppercut while focusing all my energies on makin' contact with the focus mitts (I didn't wanna hurt poor Eric by hitting him in the face by mistake – or on purpose)!
Then we move over to the Wrecking Ball. I have a lot in common with this object; it's a round, pear-shaped heavy bag perfect for punching, kicking and striking that is suspended in the air on a chain and swivels. OK, I've never actually been suspended in the air by a chain and swivel but I got to hit it and take my aggression out on this poor bag (a great outlet for anger management and Fit Club Fits).
I was sweating, thirsty and my pants kept falling down, basically I was a mess. Because my hands were trapped in Eric's gloves I was rendered helpless. Eric was kind enough to pour water down my throat and even offered to pull my pants up, he's a nice guy who actually goes out on dates!
Although the real definition of boxing is a martial art and combat sport between two people who fight each other with their fists, I seemed to be facing off with my own self. The official term for this is a Mirror Match. This was pretty exciting because I had no way of losing, at least I didn't think so!
Boxing is total body workout that builds stamina, tones muscles and burns calories. It also utilizes almost every muscle in your body and is appropriate for all ages and gender. It teaches self discipline and provides a fantastic cardio work-out. All of this helps build self confidence and hand eye coordination.
Want a great way to build stamina, strength, speed and coordination, try it sometime like on Saturdays at 10 a.m. when Martial offers "Escrima" (stick and knife fighting).
Eric claims he can teach me to "climb" the rope, he says it's easy and no different than squatting. I'm sure that if and when he gets me on the rope, we'll have to record the moment for YouTube because it's sure to go viral. If a world class athlete like Laila Ali can be a contestant in Dancing with the Stars, there might just be hope for me!
My conclusion is that boxing looks wayyyyy easier than it actually is, it's an awesome work-out and I friggen love it so much so that I actually bought a pair of gloves (in Red of course cause I didn't want them to clash with Eric's).
Someone please let Tom Chapman (APD) know that I'm planning on continuing my boxing lessons and will be soooo much more helpful at this year's Oyster Festival!
Next up: ZUMBA!
Rumor has it that Debi Farber Bush is going to produce her own video exercise and fitness series titled "Get Debi-vessent!" We know this because we are starting that rumor right now.

subset: commoncrawl


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[Caleb] is hard at work on a driving game based on 7400 series logic chips. This will be his entry in the Open 7400 Logic Competition, and it really outlines why this contest is especially tricky.
The concept behind the game is quite simple. You're the driver of a car (the red dot at the bottom of the display square seen above) and need to navigate the curves in the road as you drive along. It's the same game as we saw played on receipt paper back in June. [Caleb's] using and LED matrix as the display, and we're confident that if we grabbed our favorite microcontroller we could have this up and running on an 8×8 bi-color display in an afternoon. But doing it without the crutch of a programmable chip really brings out the clever engineer inside of you.
The circuit seen above is a Logisim proof-of-concept that [Caleb] went on to test on the breadboard. He thought he had everything figured out until he realized that his Data Flip-Flops were very occasionally not powering up in the same state as he predicted. Don't worry, he found a solution to the problem. But we can't wait to see what other hurdles he encounters as he pushes on toward completing the project.


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This statement is part of Hillary's 36 page "fog of war" chapter on Benghazi in her forthcoming memoir, a chapter obtained at least in part by Politico's Maggie Haberman, and it appears to be indicative of how she filled those 36 pages without answering any of the crucial questions about the events of that night and the following day.
This line refers to the killers.
And this line is of course a straw man, easily recognized after the president's straw man Woodstock at West Point earlier this week. It is also "inaccurate to state" that the whereabouts and actions of the president, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense that night are well known or even understood in general outline. That Hillary even bothers to spend time on the laughable "the video made them do it" argument tells us that the chapter is an exercise in space-filling, an effort to appear to be transparent and forthright about the most obvious, tragic failure of her trail of tears tenure at State. This chapter appears to be just another part of the ongoing refusal to come clean about what happened that night both in Benghazi and much more importantly for Hillary's future political ambitions in D.C.
"I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans," Haberman quotes Clinton as writing. "It's just plain wrong, and it's unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me."
This is a three-part lie: It is not "just plain wrong" to demand answers from those in charge that night, it is not "politicizing" to hold those people to account for their failures, and the investigation into Benghazi will indeed involve Clinton whether or not she agrees to be questioned about her collapse that night. This risible attempt at a "pre-emptive strike" on the subject will not work, not when the event it seeks to exile from the national debate involves the death of an ambassador and three other Americans at the hands of terrorists and not when her failure to anticipate the attack and her collapse in the face of it goes to her central claim of competency to be president.
When Hillary sits down with various journalists, they should all bear down on what did she know and when did she know it; what did she do and when did she do it --in the weeks and months before the attack and the night of the attack. They should press again and again --patiently and respectfully-- for detailed answers on chronology and specifics.
"It is our job to figure out what happened."
That is what then Secretary of State Clinton told Senator Ron Johnson immediately after her infamous "What difference at this point does it make?" outburst that defines her failure at State.
That is in fact the job of every journalist who gets to ask a question of the would-be president. None have dared tried yet, but eventually someone will, and if no one does, Hillary will ask for the country's votes without ever having given an account of her actions or her non-actions. Perhaps she can bluff, bluster and bully her way to the Oval Office but the country does not seem to be in the mood for another era of dodges, half-truths, and false outrage over being asked not only legitimate but absolutely essential questions.
Hillary's 36 page leak won't put out the fire and it won't stop the questions or the commentary. Only the detailed truth would do so, and given Hillary's adamant refusal to provide that, we can assume the truth is even more damaging than her continued stonewalling.


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With this in mind, H.E. Tsem Rinpoche commissioned different forms of Dorje Shugden to be painted in various cultural styles to better suit the temperaments of practitioners the world over. While the styles are different, they all invoke the spiritual energies of Dorje Shugden in those who see them, and each is a sacred connection to the divine. They are stunning, unique yet accurate, in keeping with the appropriate iconographic representations.
Featuring traditional hieroglyphic elements, this Egyptian themed spiritual art of Dorje Shugden is a powerful reminder of how this Universal Protector will protect and bless everyone regardless of origin, culture, colour and creed.
This work of art can grace a shrine wall, living room or work space, to keep you reminded of your spiritual goals and that Enlightenment is in your hands.
About Dorje ShugdenFor over 400 years, Dorje Shugden has been a special guardian of Tibetan Buddhism and is invoked by sincere devotees to clear obstacles and provide assistance such as material resources, wealth, health, and positive influence for their spiritual journey. His practice also brings spiritual fulfilment and he aids spiritual transformation.
Today, his primary function is to offer aid to anyone who seeks his help and to protect against negative energies, charms, magic and interferences including those caused by harmful speech and gossip.
Dorje Shugden helps anyone who relies upon him. One does not need to be practising a specific religion or to be a Buddhist. Even atheists may invoke upon Dorje Shugden as his compassion is available to all.
Product DetailsA3 Canvas Print
- Specifications: Inkjet print on canvas
- Print Size: Height 297mm (11.7-inch) x Width 399mm (15.7-inch)
- Wrapping Allowance: 51mm (2-inch)
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- Specifications: Inkjet print on canvas
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More Information*As each print is made-to-order, this item will be shipped within 7-10 working days from the date of purchase.*As each print varies in height and width based on the size of the original art piece, the finished product will vary slightly from the listed sizes.*Does not include traditional brocade or other frame.
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TSA, I've had it with you. Really and truly. I know we never really got along in the first place because I wasn't impressed with your security theater and your poor treatment of passengers and general ineffectiveness.
But I thought we could get along, develop a kind of working relationship. You'd learn from your mistakes, mature. I'd learn to be more patient, more forgiving. I was wrong.
The final straw was this story, about how your employees asked a lactating mother to prove her breast pump was real. She had to go into a public restroom and pump her breasts in front of strangers.
I doubt that GeekMoms really need me to enumerate the ways (oh, let me count them!) that this is wrong for nursing mothers everywhere. We get that, when possible, breastfeeding is ideal for mom and baby. We know society doesn't offer enough support for the nursing mother, asking her to cover up and feed her baby in public restrooms. We recognize pumping is a private activity, and moms should have a private space in which to do it.
But could I spend just a moment to point out how fundamentally stupid this was from a security point of view? Do you not get that she could have just mixed up a little formula and put it in the bottles? Or purchased some cow's milk and poured that in? Grabbed a little creamer from the condiment stand at the Starbucks kiosk? That unless your agent stood there, and watched the pump attach to the nipple and then watched the milk flow out and into the bottle, there was no way to know if that liquid in the bottles she produced actually was proof that the pump was what she said it was?
Yeah, I know. You've released a statement saying that you "'accept responsibility" for the "apparent misunderstanding" and the "inconvenience or embarrassment" you "may" have caused her. News flash, TSA. That's like saying I'm sorry if I hurt you. If you mean it, say it. "I'm sorry I hurt you" goes a lot further. I also know about your "new" procedure for the elderly, which is another piece of PR spin that I'm just not buying.
And while we're chatting, you know, just the two of us, can I ask about the complaint that I recently filed with you? About how an agent did a little dance move to mock me? And the supervisor threatened me? And the pat-down agent touched my lower genitals? Because so far, I have received four emails saying that you can't respond to my inquiry and one email saying that you have concluded that your personnel followed standard operating procedures in my screening. Yo. I disagree.
In the meantime, I hope we do get passenger advocates. I also hope, though, that Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) realizes that having TSA employees do the job will never work. If they could stop themselves from abusing passengers, they would have already done it.
Go ahead, Blogger Bob, respond to me. I triple-GeekMom-dare you.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a three-part series about airline travel. Part 2 was about Delta's poor customer service. Part 3 is our tips for avoiding and dealing with airline hassles. ]


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In a recent and very good book, John L. Allen comes to the judgment that "Christians today indisputably are the most persecuted religious body on the planet," and he concludes that "the transcendent human rights concern of our time is this rarely noted persecution." In the affluent and comfortable West, we take for granted a tolerance that is not shown Christians in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria or Eritrea, much less North Korea.
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Yet the war against Christians exists here at home, too. It is not as ugly, but it exists and with it Americans have witnessed an amazing reversal in our history. After all, this country was originally a Christian country. It was a refuge for all Christians, and, as the years passed, all Western faiths — eventually all humane faiths. America became a land of religious tolerance. Given the intolerance toward Christianity that we see in America today, possibly it is time for Christians to rethink this tolerance. Possibly, tolerance can go too far.
We see the intolerance against American Christians (and against American people of faith in general) on display every year during this "Holiday Season." There are the great battles waged generally by a few nonbelievers against Christians across America for putting up nativity scenes. The nonbelievers generally win. Now there are threats to the baby Jesus, resting in his manger. In recent years, he has been threatened by thieves intent on doing him mischief. This year there were even reports of high-tech gadgetry being employed by churches to protect their nativity scenes. Christmas, a time in which we are urged to contemplate peace on earth and goodwill toward men, is increasingly a time for rancor and for waging war against Christianity — and people of faith in general.
Just the other day, the A&E network in a foolish display of political correctitude banned a man named Phil Robertson, the patriarch of something called "Duck Dynasty," from the airways for statements he made that were allegedly bigoted against homosexuals. "Duck Dynasty" has 14 million viewers, I am told, which is a very large audience. Personally, I do not watch the show, but it has something to do with rural life, and for some reason GQ magazine — the urban sophisticates' bible — interviewed Robertson and inquired about his Christian beliefs. Why readers interested in the latest haberdashery (for fops) would be interested in Robertson, I do not know. He dresses in camouflage attire, wears heavy rubber boots and sports a long gray beard.
Yet the magazine got him on I Corinthians. In the interview, Robertson lumped homosexuals in with "adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers," as people unlikely to make an appearance in heaven in the hereafter, according to I Corinthians. This many Christians believe.
Now Robertson strikes me as an amiable sort. He was not urging the banishment of homosexuals or prohibition against drunkards. He was only citing scripture in saying that he does not expect to see them in Heaven. Maybe he will, and doubtless he will be surprised. Yet Americans are protected by the First Amendment to utter such views in public, are they not?
The "Duck Dynasty" controversy will have served a beneficial purpose if Robertson takes his case to the Supreme Court. It is about time that our courts decide what is and what is not protected by the First Amendment. Robertson did not incite violence against anyone. He did not even express a preference for those he might greet in heaven. He merely cited I Corinthians. Perhaps the Supreme Court will now tell us what passages from scripture we can and cannot cite.


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Originally published in Journal of Creation 14, no 1 (April 2000): 52-59.
Any scientific understanding of the Biblical Flood must address the hydrology and sedimentation that occurred during the Flood and in subsequent years as the Earth settled down.
Any scientific understanding of the Biblical Flood must address the hydrology and sedimentation that occurred during the Flood and in subsequent years as the Earth settled down. A number of scientific models previously proposed for the Flood are summarised and assessed. Further progress will require an integrated approach from many scientific disciplines. As well as the traditional contribution from the geological sciences, coordinated inputs from a number of other disciplines will be needed such as fluid flow, heat transfer, plate tectonics, vulcanology, planetary astronomy, and mathematics, in order to build a possible Flood hypothesis. Any model for the Flood can only be speculative. A coordinated approach will impact current Flood models that have accepted the sequential nature of the geological column and that have put the Flood/post Flood boundary far down in such conjectural reconstructions.
Traditionally, for scientists operating from an evolutionary premise, the geological sciences have provided the chronological framework to allow other scientific disciplines to place their data in an historical context. The main principle of uniformitarianism has motivated research into present geological processes so that rocks these scientists regard as ancient can be interpreted in terms of such processes. In the last thirty years there has been a major shift in thinking amongst evolutionary geologists with the development of plate tectonics—all modern geological processes are now seen as part of a global interaction of plate tectonics, which itself has been adopted as the interpretative geological paradigm.
By contrast, scientists working from a creation perspective view all significant geological events within a Biblical chronological framework. Nevertheless, there is still a need for scientific models of these events because the Biblical record is not exhaustive, nor is it intended as a scientific treatise. In particular, creation scientists need to understand the Biblical Flood by addressing the hydrology and sedimentation that occurred during the cataclysm and in the subsequent years as the Earth settled down. Modern geological processes, while instructive, do not have the same standing as for long-age uniformitarian scientists. This is because geological processes during Creation and the Flood were different from what we observe today. So creationists have a greater need to develop an integrated approach from many scientific disciplines. As well as the geological sciences, inputs from many other disciplines are needed, such as fluid flow, heat transfer, plate tectonics, vulcanology, planetary astronomy, and mathematics. In this paper we summarise the current state of a number of scientific models that have been proposed to describe the world-wide Flood and to integrate our understanding of science from the Biblical perspective.
The vapour canopy model of the Flood is the one that has held greatest sway in scientific creationism since serious research began in the 1960s. The book The Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris,1 first published in 1961, and Whitcomb's later The World that Perished (1996) explain this view.2 The vapour canopy theory is that the Earth's atmosphere was surrounded by a water vapour blanket that collapsed at the onset of the Flood. Dillow has extensively explored this concept theoretically.3 This model has led the field for a number of years, but has difficulties in accounting for the large amount of catastrophic upheaval in the Earth at the beginning and through the Flood year.
Catastrophic upheaval is evident, for instance, at the Old Red Sandstone rock formation from Loch Ness to the Orkneys in Scotland where an area 2500 m deep and 160 km across, contains countless fish, buried in contorted and contracted positions, as though in convulsion.4,5 There is all the evidence of catastrophic burial by processes (it would seem) of greater power than that provided by the vapour canopy theory. Although there may be some substance in these objections to the vapour canopy proposal, it should be noted that this model of the Flood, though it predicts late drowning of creatures by rising floodwaters, should not be regarded as tranquil. Indeed in this model, the rising waters would be extremely turbulent, and probably involve vast surging tidal waves. Nevertheless it is still difficult to explain the major fossil strata by this method.
Consequently some, such as Garner,6 Garton,7 Tyler,8,9 and Robinson,10,11 object, not only to the vapour canopy model of the Flood,12 but also (more fundamentally) to the basic premise that the Flood caused most of the fossils. Their objection arises from their belief that the geological column represents a real time sequence (though on a fast time-scale of the one-year Flood followed by many post-Flood disasters). Because there is evidence deep in this geological column that many animals were alive on land, and yet are buried above waterborne sediments, they propose that most of the geological column was deposited after the Flood. Thus, they propose that the Flood removed all trace of land air-breathing creatures and that most of the fossils found on the Earth were buried by post-Flood catastrophes. Known as the 'European Flood model', we have sought to show in a companion article13 that Biblically, this is greatly straining the straightforward meaning of Genesis 6–9. Here we seek to show that to regard the geological column as a true chronological record is at best a questionable assumption. We agree with Froede that there needs to be a complete rethink of how to interpret the geological layering so evident in the rocks.14,15 Woodmorappe rightly points out that the way the supposed ten periods are assigned can be quite subjective.16 In this paper we question whether we really yet have any firm grasp of the way all the strata have been laid down. Even the basic notion that 'bottom is oldest' is not proven.17
One of the major difficulties raised by Flood models of fossilisation (including the canopy theory) is the problem of dinosaur nest sites within the fossil record. These certainly pose quite a difficult problem to solve in the context of Flood sedimentation.
Garner points out that the eggs are obviously in neat patterns, suggesting that they have to be regarded as in situ, and cannot be accounted for by sediments deposited elsewhere and transported in before final fossilisation.6 Garton shows that there are dinosaur tracks all the way from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary and Quaternary rocks.7 He concludes that this must be evidence of post-Flood activity. Tyler believes the vast chalk deposits (usually taken to be the crushed remains of marine shells) need decades to form and also concludes that the Cretaceous is post-Flood.8
Because of such evidence, critics of Flood fossilisation in general, and the Whitcomb and Morris model of the Flood in particular, have maintained that the Flood/post-Flood boundary is low down in the geological record, in the Paleozoic, as explained by Tyler.9 (This geological column term is used simply for communication purposes. The order of the strata may well be incorrect for reasons outlined later.) Such critics have maintained that all Flood models which attribute most fossils to the Flood, are incorrect, and propose that the Flood left no trace whatsoever of all air-breathing land creatures—the so called 'blot out' theory.
In a companion paper,13 we give important Biblical reasons why fossils are the most natural evidence expected from the Flood. However these authors are right to criticise the vapour canopy model if it does not provide enough sedimentation to achieve such a vast thickness of fossil-containing strata. This is why we discuss other models in this paper, which, we believe, yield a more plausible picture of the Flood year.
The hydroplate theory has the advantage of explaining great devastation in the first 40 days. This theory for the catastrophic formation of the sedimentary rock layers during the Flood has been proposed by Dr Walter Brown (former chief of Science and Technological Studies at the Air War College, and Associate Professor at the U.S. Air Academy).18–20
The main proposal for the origin of the Flood waters is massive catastrophism in the first 40 days of the Flood. (We agree with the European Flood proponents that the initial devastation was exceedingly great, but we dispute that there remains no evidence of the mabbul and its effects on creatures in the geological record.) The Brown hypothesis18,20 is that the Earth's crust was fractured (maybe by an impact), releasing vast subterranean waters (the 'fountains of the great deep') under great pressure into the atmosphere, perhaps as high as 30 km. Brown's model essentially deals with water, but in the following continental drift phase includes volcanic activity21 as a result of the fast tectonic movement caused by the widening rupture in the Earth's crust. Thus he states:
'In some regions, the high temperatures and pressures formed metamorphic rock. Where this heat was intense, rock melted. This high pressure magma squirted up through cracks between broken blocks, producing other metamorphic rocks. Sometimes it escaped to the earth's surface producing volcanic activity and "floods" of lava outpourings such as we see on the Columbia and Deccan Plateaus. This was the beginning of the earth's volcano activity.' 22
Brown states further:
'Shifts of mass upon the earth created stresses and ruptures in and just beneath the earth's crust. This was especially severe under the Pacific Ocean, since the major continental plates all moved toward the Pacific. The portions of the plates that buckled downward were pressed into the earth's mantle. This produced the ocean trenches and the region called the "ring of fire" in and around the Pacific Ocean. The sharp increase in pressure under the floor of the Pacific caused ruptures and an outpouring of lava which formed submarine volcanoes called seamounts.' 23
Thus the initial rupture of the Earth's crust under this view would hurl rocks and sediments in gigantic muddy fountains of water which then lead to intense precipitation (consistent with Genesis 7 (KJV)) for the 40 day period. These fountains would eventually be followed by many large volcanic eruptions in the 'Ring of Fire' around the Pacific, all with the force of Krakatoa. This volcano exploded in 1883 sending rocks and dust into the atmosphere to a height of 55 km. The explosion was so intense that it could be heard 4,600 km away. Dust fell at a distance of 5,327 km ten days after the explosion,24 and a tsunami (tidal wave) 30 metres high travelled right across the Indian Ocean at 720 km/h.25 Similarly, during the Flood, on top of the water borne sediments, and sometimes mixed with them, vast layers of magma would be poured out or catastrophically exploded into the atmosphere.
The rain in the first 40 days of the Flood involved not only the return to the Earth of the jets of superheated steam ejected into the atmosphere (which would partly fall as hail and snow), but great quantities of rock debris as well. Many fossils could have formed within the first few weeks of the Flood in this model. In the next 110 days, further vast layering, scouring and re-layering of the continents would occur under the ravages of the Flood waters. The final catastrophic drainage of the waters occurred at the end of the continental drift phase when, after massive tectonic upheaval, the land eventually re-appeared as the Earth's crust found a new equilibrium. It is significant that Genesis 8:3 (KJV) speaks of the waters 'returning from off the earth' (literally 'going and returning' in the Hebrew).
Some have criticised the rupture phase of the hydroplate model with its vast quantities of hot steam ejected at enormous speeds into the atmosphere, causing immense rainfall. However, the 'explosive mixing of water and lava'10 targeted by these objections, is very possibly how the 'windows of heaven' were opened as described in the Flood account.
Within the context of the hydroplate model, it is entirely feasible that many creatures would flee in vain to survive. We would expect to find fossil evidence of this, such as tracks in mud subsequently covered quickly by sediment.26 Furthermore, since it was a full year before Noah came out of the Ark, there is certainly room within the Genesis account for some late-Flood and post-Flood disasters as the waters receded. Thus the Grand Canyon may well have been formed when a vast natural inland lake (left behind after the Flood receded) burst its banks and scoured out the canyon. In this process, vast quantities of silt and debris would be carried to the Pacific coast-line.27 Brown,18 describing the aftermath of the hydroplate catastrophe, agrees with Austin that the Grand Canyon formed in this way. The Toutle Canyon was observed to form catastrophically in a similar manner, but on a much smaller scale, after the Mount St Helen's eruption in 1980. Such catastrophic processes may account for the burrows of small marine creatures in rocks at one horizon, but which are now covered by further sediments.
The theory of catastrophic plate tectonics (CPT) was initiated by Baumgardner,28 and later developed in conjunction with other creation scientists.29 Reed et al. provide a good review of plate tectonics as interpreted within a catastrophic framework,30 but make the point in their conclusions that the original driving mechanism behind continental plate displacement and subduction is not known. CPT theory starts with the assumption that the Flood was initiated when slabs of oceanic crust broke loose and subducted along thousands of kilometres of pre-Flood continental margins. It is suggested that subducting slabs of material locally deformed and heated the mantle, locally lowering its viscosity. With lowered viscosity, the subduction rate increased—and this in turn caused the mantle to heat up even more. This, it is argued, led to a thermal runaway instability, and allowed subduction rates of metres per second. Baumgardner shows that rapid, large-scale subduction would furthermore initiate global-scale flow of the mantle beneath the Earth's crust. This in turn would cause strong convection currents in the Earth's outer core and explain how geomagnetic reversals took place.31,32 Magnetic reversals of course had been thought to have taken place slowly over millions of years on the evolutionary geological timescale. However, the extension by Humphreys of the CPT theory of Baumgardner to account for the Earth's magnetism gives an underlying cause for the quick reversals. In that evidence for rapid reversals has been discovered in thin lava flows, the magnetic field deductions from CPT theory gives considerable confidence in the theory of continental plate collision and subduction as being a primary mechanism for major global upheaval during the Flood.
It is only recently that the implications of the mathematical modelling of CPT have been successfully understood. It was necessary to solve numerically the stiff partial differential equations governing the behaviour of silicate rock material, taking full account of the large dependence of effective rock viscosity on temperature and strain rate. The highly nonlinear relationship between viscosity and stress implies that the effective viscosity decreases sharply once the material is subjected to a strong shear stress. This liquefying effect increases dramatically as the temperature increases, even though it may only be at 60% of its melting temperature. An important feedback mechanism then comes into play. As the cold upper boundary layer of the Earth's mantle sinks into the hot mantle underneath (due to the liquefying stress), it heats the mantle locally. This reduces the viscosity even further, thus allowing the plate to sink faster. The two effects (strong shear stress and the peeling away of the upper cool boundary of the mantle) effectively reinforce each other, and consequently thermal runaway begins. As Baumgardner states in his paper:
'A compelling logical argument in favor of this mechanism [subduction] is the fact that there is presently no ocean floor on the earth that predates the fossiliferous strata. In other words all the basalt that comprises the upper five kilometers or so of today's igneous rocks has cooled from the molten state since sometime after the Flood cataclysm began.' 28
He then asks where the pre-Flood seafloor went. The model convincingly suggests the answer that the original sea-floor was catastrophically subducted, so that we now have a relatively new sea-floor—formed as igneous flows from the Earth's mantle deposited in very thick (five kilometres or so) layers at the bottom of the present-day oceans.
The hydroplate theory previously discussed and CPT are usually regarded as mutually exclusive. But this need not be so. There is considerable room for volcanic activity during the continental drift phase of the hydroplate theory.33 The breaking of the Earth's crust (possibly by an impact) may well have released large volumes of subterranean waters into the atmosphere, and led to the rapid movement of the broken continental plates from the impact centre. Subsequently, a subduction mechanism may then have taken over from the initial catastrophe, driving continuous upheavals in the Earth's mantle under the seas, and sustaining the disaster for the rest of the Flood year.
Guy Berthault has produced some landmark research into sedimentology. First on a small scale, but more recently on a larger scale, he has studied the deposition of heterogeneous mixtures from flowing water.34 His results indicate that different sediment layers do not deposit one after the other in a vertical direction, but all at the same time horizontally.35 Applying these findings to the Grand Canyon, the different layers would have been deposited under strong water currents and laid down horizontally, not vertically. Thus many of the layers of the canyon would have been deposited simultaneously, and do not necessarily represent different periods of time. If proved, this has immense implications for the whole theory of sediment formation world-wide. Clearly we must avoid saying that all sediments were laid down this way. The vast coal seams would be one example of deposition in a non-flowing environment. However Berthault's sedimentology experiments have overturned previous belief that layers form one after the other in stages. Such surprising results may help us understand why the apparent order of the so-called geological column is reversed in some parts of the world.
Furthermore it is interesting to note that the preliminary results of the work by Baumgardner and Barnette support Berthault's basic premise.36 They considered the simplified problem of a shallow, homogeneous and inviscid fluid (water) flowing over a rotating sphere. Their fully transient solution to this problem produced some unexpectedly fast flowing regions of strong cyclonic gyres with velocities of 40–80 m/sec. The effect of such fast flowing currents on deposits of material carried with the water is not yet understood, but this shows that there is a great deal to be done with heterogeneous flows where the shallow water assumption is lifted. Generic studies, both experimental and numerical, are needed.
A method for classifying rock formations without direct appeal to the geological column (with collapsed time-scales) has been proposed by Walker.37 This method advocates different types of flood formations as the waters rose and subsided. The hydroplate method or Baumgardner's approach can both be used as possible driving mechanisms for the Flood within such a classification.
It is vital to remember that no one theory is probably entirely adequate to reckon with all the data, but nevertheless, one can speculate about possible answers to perceived problems. For example, Garner has rightly pointed out the difficulty with certain basalt flows appearing 'late on' in the supposed geological column.38 Since these seem to require a sub-aerial environment, one can understand his conclusion that the post-Flood boundary must be earlier than the basalts. Thus with the water drained from the land, the subsequent volcanic activity in the Mesozoic and Cainozoic would be sub-aerial. But if we accept the hydroplate model of the initiation of the Flood, then the first 40 days would involve immense destruction consistent with the Paleozoic (some even include most of the Precambrian39) record. The waters of the oceans were still rising, parts of the land were still not covered entirely by water—there may even have been a brief lull. Certainly this is not inconsistent with the account in Genesis 7:17–24 (KJV). In the next 110 days, immense volcanic upheaval occurred on the land masses, but still not all the land was finally covered. At the same time, upheavals of the land masses were also occurring, so that some of the land that had been covered was exposed, albeit briefly—of the order of weeks.
It is conceivable that dinosaur tracks could have been made in this time. Garton rightly points out that these dinosaur tracks go right through the Mesozoic and into the Cainozoic.7 Under our scenario, tracks in the Mesozoic are consistent with ground still being available at the late stage of the 150 days. Some tracks may already have been made earlier, just after the 40 days' initial onslaught, and then pushed upwards when the mountains rose. Similarly, tracks showing no sign of chaotic motion in the Pyrenees in Spain40 may also be at the late stage of the 150 days, again pushed upwards as the mountains rose. Finally the waters with vast amounts of debris and sediment overpowered these large creatures which, not surprisingly are buried in the same part of the strata as the later tracks and usually 'higher' up the column. We do not claim that such a scenario explains everything. There is a vast amount of work still to be done to understand the mechanisms involved. But we suggest that a willingness to expect and look for the unusual is always important for advance in scientific research.
Egg-laying by dinosaurs in Mesozoic strata,6 well above what appears to be the initial fossils of marine creatures in the lower strata, challenges the view that most of the fossils were formed by the Flood. Robinson gives further evidence of other apparently in situ fossils including plant roots in the Jurassic as well as marine fossils apparently in situ right up through Cretaceous into Tertiary rock.11 Robinson argues against the vapour canopy model, stating:
'The sudden death of the dinosaurs and other animals at the end of the Cretaceous is a phenomenon for which the received Flood model [i.e. the vapour canopy model of Whitcomb and Morris] has no explanation.' 41
However, the model suggested by Robinson, Garner, Garton and others involving many post-Flood catastrophes gives no real answer either to the sudden death of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous. Their post-Flood fossilisation hypothesis, in our view, becomes a serious scientific problem.
Marine fossils are found high up in mountains in the Alps, often deposited with great violence (as suggested by the Jurassic marine fossils at lower altitude on the North East Coast of Yorkshire near Whitby). The burial of large dinosaurs, by their thousands in Alberta and Montana,6 South Dakota, Kansas and Colorado42 with vast continental sedimentation (in some places thousands of feet thick) would not be possible without causing gigantic upheaval in other parts of the Earth. It seems inconceivable that post-Flood disasters could deposit such thick strata without causing violent effects all round the world. The scale, depth and the sheer number of fossils argues strongly that these must be part of the Flood. Rather than forcing the interpretation of mabbul to mean the removal of all possible evidence of any creatures (the 'blot out' theory—to allow suggested post-Flood activity), it seems wiser to question whether we have properly understood the scientific evidence.
In his article, Robinson states that Oard's post-Cretaceous model for the Flood/post-Flood boundary is 'not a straightforward interpretation of Scripture'.43 He argues that the position on the geologic column whereby the Flood killed the dinosaurs is 'a paradigm constraining the interpretation of Scripture'. However, the alternative position he advocates, of entirely blotting out all animal remains without trace is, in our view, forcing a tenuous meaning on the word mabbul. This and the requirement of post-Flood disasters on a continental scale are leading to a much greater difficulty in the natural interpretation of Scripture.
It seems clear that some dinosaurs must have been buried by catastrophic waterborne sediment.
We suggest that the burial of the dinosaurs by Flood waters is consistent with the evidence. We have suggested, as one option, that the dinosaurs and their nests were buried late in the Flood. Other scenarios could be possible. For example, sea creatures may have been buried by vast submarine landslides,44 which were then pushed above sea-level in the first few days of the Flood. At the same time, sediments containing dinosaurs buried in the early stages of the Flood may have then been transported only a short distance across the newly exposed submarine deposits. It seems clear that some dinosaurs must have been buried by catastrophic waterborne sediment, at least in the case of the Mongolian examples of burial in the Cretaceous layers.45
A third option, and possibly the most plausible view, for the occurrence of dinosaur tracks late in the strata is that advocated by Garton.46 He suggests that large creatures (including dinosaurs) were trapped in the floating Carboniferous forests. The evidence for these vast islands of vegetation carried by the heaving seas seems to be particularly strong.47 Garton maintains that these creatures swarmed the inhospitable land in the final stages of the Flood. (In that he allows a few creatures to have survived the first 40 days, we presume he does not regard the 'blotting out' to be fully comprehensive.) This option explains the apparent anomalies and suggests that there may have been some protection from the initial inundation from above in the early stages of the Flood. Scheven's excellent work on floating mats of vegetation seems to explain the Carboniferous coal measures very ably. It is conceivable that as these mats struck land, the continued pounding of the seas as the waters rose to their maximum height could cause violent deposition of sediments with vast ocean waves criss-crossing the continents. The waters at this stage were not necessarily tranquil. In fact, this is most unlikely. Great geological activity seems to have been going on still, even though the rains had stopped. The bringing up of the mountains and the sinking of the valleys (Psalm 104:8 (KJV) 'The mountains ascend, the valleys descend') occurred immediately after the earth was finally covered (Psalm 104:6, KJV).48
It is therefore entirely conceivable that further giant mudslides trapped the dinosaurs as the rafts struck land in the final stages of the 150 days, or that some escaped onto land, only to be buried as the rising waters finally covered the land. The burial of birds in the later strata is all consistent with the final stages of the 150 days, where no land was available.
It is important that all scientific disciplines be utilised to understand the possible processes of the Flood. It is not only geology that should be considered. Hydrodynamics also must play a part in understanding sedimentation processes. Berthault has rightly stated 'Determination of initial hydraulic conditions from sedimentary structures, resulting from sedimentological data is, therefore, a research priority.' 49 Today, in the experience of the lead author (in fluid dynamics and thermodynamics research), a multi-disciplined approach is usually needed before scientific advances can be made in the understanding of complicated and unusual phenomena. Progress is not generally possible when it is insisted that only experts of one discipline can solve the underlying physics of a particular problem.
The modelling of the flow of heterogeneous mixtures with the full laws of conservation of energy, mass, momentum, is one of the greatest challenges that computational fluid dynamics has faced. A very careful and thorough approach is demanded when the particle size of the material carried with the water varies widely. The problem involves materials of different densities, different viscosities, with very large variations in local Reynolds number (convection divided by viscous diffusion) and hydraulic conditions. Furthermore, boundary layers have to be modelled with particular attention to the possible change from turbulent to laminar flow. The experiments of Berthault have already clearly shown that surprising lamination can occur in the sediment deposits from such flows. These conditions now need to be modelled by fluid dynamicists and mathematicians, so an understanding of the larger picture can emerge by carefully constructed mathematical models.
On the larger scale modelling of solid earth geophysics, we acknowledge the impressive work already under way with the investigations of Baumgardner and Barnette.36 Interaction between geologists and other scientists (particularly those researching in fluid dynamics), is essential if there is to be progress in Flood geology, beyond (the not unnecessary) basic description of what rocks and fossils are found at particular locations. Only as there is greater interaction between the relevant scientific disciplines will some of the unanswered problems of the Biblical Flood models be solved.
Flood models
TJ 14:3 (December 2000)
Whitcomb, J.C. and Morris, H., The Genesis Flood, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, 1961. Return to text.
Whitcomb, J.C., The World that Perished, Revised Edition, Baker, 1996. Return to text.
Dillow, J.C., The Waters Above: Earth's Pre-Flood Vapour Canopy, Revised Edition, Moody Press, Chicago, 1982. Return to text.
Milton, R., The Facts of Life—Shattering the Myth of Darwinism, 4th. Estate, London, pp. 85–86, 1992. Return to text.
Trewin, N.H., Mass mortalities of Devonian fish—the Achananas Fish Bed, Caithness, Geology Today, pp. 45–49, Mar/April, 1985. Return to text.
Garner, P., Where is the Flood/post Flood boundary? Implications of dinosaur nests in the Mesozoic, CEN Tech. J. 10(1):101–106, 1996. Return to text.
Garton, M., The pattern of fossil tracks in the geological record, CEN Tech. J. 10(1):82–100, 1996. Return to text.
Tyler, D.J., A post-Flood solution to the chalk problem, CEN Tech. J. 10(1):107–113, 1996. Return to text.
Tyler, D.J., Flood models and trends in creationist thinking, Creation Matters 2(3), 1997. Return to text.
Robinson, S.J., Was the Flood initiated by catastrophic plate tectonics? Origins 21:9–16, 1996. Return to text.
Robinson, S.J., Can Flood geology explain the fossil record? CEN Tech. J. 10(1):32–69, 1996. Return to text.
Other objections to the vapour canopy model concern the latent heat of such vapourisation—see Vardiman, L., An analytical young-earth flow model of the ice sheet formation during the 'ice age'; in: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Creationism, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, pp. 561–568, 1994, and Vardiman, L., A conceptual transition model of the atmospheric global circulation following the Genesis Flood; in: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Creationism, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, pp. 569–580, 1994. Return to text.
McIntosh, A.C., Edmondson, T. and Taylor, S.C., Genesis and Catastrophe, CEN Tech. J. 14(1):101–109, 2000. Return to text.
Froede, C.R., Sequence stratigraphy and Creation geology, Creation Res. Soc. Quart. 31(3):138–147, 1994. Return to text.
Froede, C.R., A proposal for a Creationist geological timescale, Creation Res. Soc. Quart., 32(2):90–94, 1995. Return to text.
Woodmorappe, J., The geologic column: does it exist? CEN Tech. J. 13(2):77–82, 1999. Return to text.
Berthault, G., Experiments in Stratification, Sarong Productions, Jersey, video, 1999. Return to text.
Brown, W., In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for the Creation and the Flood, 6th (special) edition, Centre for Scientific Creationism, Phoenix, Arizona, 1996. Return to text.
Selbrede, M.G., Dr Walt Brown's Hydroplate Theory, Chalcedon Report (Sept.), pp. 37–45, 1998. Return to text.
Brown, W., The Young Age of the Earth, Alpha productions, video. Return to text.
Brown, Ref. 18, pp. 86–92. Return to text.
Brown, Ref. 18, p. 88. Return to text.
Brown, Ref. 18, p. 91. Return to text.
McWhirter, N. (ed.), Guinness Book of Records, Guinness, London, p. 61, 1983. Return to text.
Whitcomb and Morris, Ref. 1, p. 264. Return to text.
Morris, J.D., The Young Earth, Master Books, p. 95, 1994. Return to text.
Austin, S.A., Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe, ICR, Santee, California, 1994. Return to text.
Baumgardner, J.R., Runaway subduction as the driving mechanism for the Genesis Flood, in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 63–76, 1994. Return to text.
Austin, S.A., Baumgardner, J.R., Humphreys, D.R., Snelling, A.A., Vardiman, L. and Wise, K.P., Catastrophic plate tectonics: a global Flood model of Earth history; in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 609–622, 1994. Return to text.
Reed, J.K., Bennett, C.B., Froede, C.R., Oard, M.J. and Woodmorappe, J., An introduction to modern uniformitarian and catastrophic plate tectonic concepts, Creation Res. Soc. Quart. 33(4):202–210, 1996. Return to text.
Humphreys, D.R., Has the earth's magnetic field flipped? Creation Res. Soc. Quart. 25(3):130–137, 1988. Return to text.
Humphreys, D.R., Physical mechanisms for reversals of the earth's magnetic field during the Flood; in: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 129–142, 1990. Return to text.
Brown, Ref. 18, pp. 82–92. Return to text.
Berthault, G., Genesis and historical geology: a personal perspective, CEN Tech. J. 12(2):213–217, 1998. Return to text.
Julien, P.Y., Lan, Y. and Berthault, G., Experiments on stratification of heterogeneous sand mixtures, Bulletin of the Society of Geology, France, 164(5):649–660, 1993. Return to text.
Baumgardner, J.R. and Barnette, D.W., Patterns of ocean circulation over the continents during Noah's Flood; in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 77–86, 1994. Return to text.
Walker, T., A Biblical geological model; in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 581–592, 1994. Return to text.
Garner, P., Continental flood basalts indicate a pre-Mesozoic Flood/post-Flood boundary, CEN Tech. J. 10(1):114–127, 1996. Return to text.
Hunter, M.J., Is the pre-Flood/Flood boundary in the earth's mantle? CEN Tech. J. 10(3):344–357, 1996. Return to text.
Garton, M., The real lifestyle of the dinosaurs, Origins 24:14–22, 1998. Return to text.
Robinson, S.J., Dinosaurs in the Oardic Flood, CEN Tech. J. 12(1):55–86, 63, 1998. Return to text.
Taylor, J., Fossil Facts and Fantasies, Mt Blanco Publishing Co., ch. 4, pp. 36–47, 1999. Return to text.
Robinson, Ref. 41, p. 57. Return to text.
Snelling, A.A., Catastrophic sedimentation: giant submarine landslides, CEN Tech. J. 12(2):135–136, 1998. Return to text.
Snelling, A.A., Waterborne gravity flows buried Mongolian dinosaurs, CEN Tech. J. 12(2):133–134, 1998. Return to text.
Garton, Ref. 7, p. 97–98. Return to text.
Scheven, J., The Carboniferous floating forest—an extinct pre-Flood eco-system, CEN Tech. J. 10(1):70–81, 1996. Return to text.
It has been argued that Psalm 104:6–9 (KJV) is referring to the third day of the Creation Week. However the context of Psalm 104:8–9 (KJV) is of a perpetual decree that the waters 'may not pass over' (Hebrew abhar). The parallel passages Isaiah 54:9 (KJV) and Jeremiah 5:22 (KJV) use the same word (abhar) and refer to the Rainbow Covenant concerning the sea not being allowed to cross over the boundary of the shore. Thus there is a good case that although Psalm 104:1–5 (KJV) is referring to Creation, Psalm 104:6–9 (KJV) is speaking of the Flood. Whitcomb, Ref. 2, p. 40–41. See also Taylor, C.V., Did mountains really rise according to Psalm 104:8? CEN Tech. J. 12(3):312–313, 1998, and discussion in CEN Tech. J. 13(1):68–71, 1999. Return to text.
Berthault, Ref. 34, p. 216. Return to text.
Rush, D.E. and Vardiman, L., Pre–Flood vapor canopy radiative temperature profiles; in: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creationism, Volume 2, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 231–245, 1990. Return to text.
Brown, W.T., The fountains of the great deep; in: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Creationism, Volume 1, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 23–38, 1986. Return to text.
Baumgardner, J.R., Runaway subduction as the driving mechanism for the Genesis Flood; in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 63–75, 1994. Return to text.
Andy McIntosh is Reader in Combustion Theory at the University of Leeds in the Department of Fuel and Energy, researching into fluids, explosions, ignition, and heat transfer. He read Applied Mathematics at Bangor University, North Wales, completed his Ph.D. in Combustion Aerodynamics in 1981, and obtained a D.Sc. in 1998. Author of many articles on combustion and fluids, Andy speaks widely on Creation, and authored the book 'Genesis for Today'.
Tom Edmondson holds degrees in music from Trinity College of Music (London University) and also a degree in history and philosophy from the Open University. Together with his wife he did linguistic and translation work among the Ejagham people of SE Nigeria and SW Cameroon with Wycliffe Bible Translators for a number of years. He is a founding member of the Bradford Creation Science Group.
Steven Taylor is a Reader in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at Liverpool University. His Ph.D. thesis was concerned with the inductively coupled plasma oxidation of silicon. He has published over 100 papers in refereed journals and conferences in the field of silicon microelectronics, plasma processing and ion physics. He is currently Chairman of the UK Dielectrics Club and formerly a member of the Program Committee of IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialist Conference.
Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.


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Assignment 2: LASA 1—Business Analytics Implementation Plan Part 1 In learning about BA, you have covered quite a few topics from the manager's decision-making process to technology integration. The best way to pull all of this knowledge together is to cr
Assignment 2: LASA 1—Business Analytics Implementation Plan Part 1 In learning about BA, you have covered quite a few topics from the manager's decision-making process to technology integration. The best way to pull all of this knowledge together is to create a BA implementation plan for a hypothetical organization. This is something you would do in a real-life scenario if you came across an organization that does not utilize BA; as a professional, you would create the plan and then present it to management. Description of LASA In this assignment, you will create a business analytics implementation plan. The plan will consist of explaining business analytics to management, addressing the advantages and disadvantages of business analytics, the challenges of utilizing business analytics, along with a backup plan in case management does not accept the first option. Scenario You have been hired as a business analyst for a well-known design firm. Currently, they utilize technology for their day-to-day operations but not to analyze data to help with making business decisions. Your task is to convince management that the usage of business analytics would be a great benefit to the business and it would help the business to make well-informed decisions and thus action plans that would align with the business's strategic planning. The firm currently has technology in place but does not have any connected systems. The databases are all independent of each other but they do utilize a client/server environment. The firm currently has one location and it is looking to add a second location in another part of the state, but is unsure as to whether it would be beneficial to the firm. Instructions Using the Argosy University online library resources and the Internet, research business analytics implementation plans. Select at least 4 scholarly sources for use in this assignment. Write a proposal in which you explain the importance of using business analytics. Objectives of proposals: Describe the business and provide a summary of the business analytics they could apply to their business in multiple scenarios. Describe the benefits and disadvantages of business analytics, as well as how the organization can be proactive in addressing any disadvantages. Include at least 3 benefits and disadvantages. Address any challenges the organization may face using business analytics, as well as how the organization can be proactive in addressing the challenges. Be sure to address at least 3 challenges. Propose three business analytic techniques. Compare them and discuss at least two benefits and disadvantages of each. Create an implementation plan to integrate business analytics into your organization. Create a backup proposal in case management does not approve your initial proposal. The backup proposal should have at least 3 changes different from the original plan. Write the paper from the perspective that it will be presented to management of the firm and you are trying to persuade them to utilize business analytics for data-driven decision making. The paper has to contain the following: Cover Page Table of Contents (auto-generated by MS Word) Introduction Implementation Plan (5–6 pages of content) Conclusion References Utilize at least 4 scholarly sources in support of your recommendations. Make sure you write in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in appropriate and accurate representation and attribution of sources; display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Write a 10–12-page proposal in Word format. This page total should include the Cover Page, Table of Contents, Introduction, Implementation plan, Conclusion, and references. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2.doc.
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Contact: Sandy Connolly, Director of Communications
Office of Higher Education
(651) 259-3902
The Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) is launching a new website today that enhances the services they provide to students, parents, educators and policymakers.
The website will still provide information about financial aid, outreach activities and research reports, but the new format will allow for easier access and readability.
"The site has been given a visual overhaul, making it much more appealing, intuitive and informative," said Larry Pogemiller, Director of OHE. "We are especially focusing on the services we provide to students and families, making it easier for them to find the information they need to make good decisions about postsecondary education."
Students can find information on upcoming events, such as ACT and SAT tests and College Knowledge Month, as well as information on choosing and paying for college. Educators and organizations can still order copies of OHE publications for their classrooms, access Get Ready curriculum ideas and request outreach presentations.
Policy makers can access online versions of OHE reports, including the legislatively mandated accountability report, Minnesota Measures, as well as Student Enrollment Data and Tuition and Fees Data, to name a few. New formatting tools will make the data more interactive and personal.
Social media is featured prominently, with links to Facebook, Twitter and OHE's blog, Big Ed, found on the home page. There is also information on the home page about OHE's new College Planner mobile website application, a tool that is available free of charge to students to help them make good choices about their postsecondary education.
OHE's new site will be updated frequently to provide the most current information and news on postsecondary education. Visitors to the site can also sign up to receive OHE's e-newsletter, scheduled to begin in May.
For more information, contact Sandy Connolly at 651-259-3902, or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Note: documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) require Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher to view.


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The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has agreed to investigate allegations that Facebook exposes its users' personal data to mass snooping by U.S. intelligence services, following a ruling of the High Court of Ireland on Tuesday.
Austrian Facebook user Maximilian Schrems filed a complaint with the DPC in 2013, in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations about the U.S. National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance system.
The DPC initially dismissed the complaint as "frivolous," a decision Schrems went on to challenge in the Irish high court.
Facebook, the DPC said in 2013, complied with the terms of the so-called Safe Harbor agreement, under which businesses certify that they respect EU data protection legislation when processing data in the U.S., and since that agreement had been made by the European Commission under the terms of the EU directive that also informed Irish law on the matter, there was nothing for the DPC to investigate.
Schrems asked the Irish high court for a judicial review of the DPC's decision, and the court in turn asked the European Union's highest court, the Court of Justice of the EU, to rule on whether national data protection authorities had the power to challenge the European Commission's decision that the Safe Harbor agreement provided sufficient protection under EU law.
Earlier this month, the CJEU responded to the Irish high court's questions, ruling that national data protection authorities had a duty to investigate complaints even when they concerned a decision of the European Commission.
The CJEU went much further, however, invalidating the Safe Harbor agreement itself.
In a hearing at the Irish high court Tuesday morning, the high court judge quashed the DPC's decision to dismiss the case, Ireland's national broadcaster RTE reported.
Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon said her office "will now investigate the substance of the complaint with all due diligence."
The substance of Schrems' complaint was that Facebook's transfer of the personal information of its European users, managed by Facebook Ireland, to the U.S. for processing by the parent company, Facebook, did not respect EU and Irish privacy law.
The Safe Harbor agreement under which Facebook and thousands of other companies made such data transfers forbid them from forwarding data to third parties without giving users notice and a choice in the matter. There was an exception for compelling reasons of national security, but Schrems had asked the DPC to investigate whether Facebook's alleged granting of bulk access to the NSA met that requirement or was voluntary.
The DPC will now have to investigate that and other allegations in Schrems' original complaint.
Facebook will respond to inquiries from the DPC as part of the investigation, a Facebook representative said, adding: "Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US government direct access to our servers."


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- technical
- technical (adj.) 1610s, "skilled in a particular art or subject," formed in English from Gk. tekhnikos "of art," from tekhne "art, skill, craft" (see TECHNO- (Cf. techno-)). The sense narrowed to "having to do with the mechanical arts" (1727). Basketball technical foul (one which does not involve contact between opponents) is recorded from 1934. Boxing technical knock-out (one in which the loser is not knocked out) is recorded from 1921; abbreviation TKO is from 1940s.
Etymology dictionary. 2014.


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Debian Security Advisory
DSA-2970-1 cacti -- security update
- Date Reported:
- 29 Jun 2014
- Affected Packages:
- cacti
- Vulnerable:
- Yes
- Security database references:
- In Mitre's CVE dictionary: CVE-2014-2326, CVE-2014-2327, CVE-2014-2328, CVE-2014-2708, CVE-2014-2709, CVE-2014-4002.
- More information:
Multiple security issues (cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, SQL injections, missing input sanitising) have been found in Cacti, a web frontend for RRDTool.
For the stable distribution (wheezy), these problems have been fixed in version 0.8.8a+dfsg-5+deb7u3.
For the testing distribution (jessie), these problems have been fixed in version 0.8.8b+dfsg-6.
For the unstable distribution (sid), these problems have been fixed in version 0.8.8b+dfsg-6.
We recommend that you upgrade your cacti packages.