News to Note, November 18, 2006

1. Guardian, Spiegel, and Journalistic Accuracy

Two major European publications, Britain's The Guardian and Germany's Der Spiegel, published mocking articles on the Creation Museum this week.

2. Lizards Touted as Proving Evolution

“Darwin got it right!” Observations are “confirming Charles Darwin's theory on natural selection!”

3. BBC NEWS: Neanderthal DNA secrets unlocked

A reconstruction of a chunk of Neanderthal DNA, from Neanderthal bone supposedly 38,000 years old, is causing scientists to claim that “Neanderthals were indeed different from us,” even though “the information gleaned from [the reconstruction] is limited.” Of course, interestingly, this isn't the first of such claims. Look forward to an upcoming full report on the latest on Neanderthal genome sequencing to be posted on our site soon.

4. news@nature.com: Hubble sees dark energy's youth

The idea of “dark energy” is an interesting sign of problems with the big bang. A survey of 23 supernovae has revealed that “the stars are further away than would be expected if the Universe were expanding without the added force of dark energy to push things apart.” In other words, the predictions of the big bang regarding where the supernovae should be are wrong. The solution? Introduce the “fudge factor” of unobserved dark energy.

Cosmologist Sean Carroll puts it best: “We still don't understand some very basic things … [e]very clue on dark energy is important.” Indeed, it seems as though anytime a hole is found in the big bang model, these scientists have faith in some just-so model of resolution.

5. The Daily Telegraph: Stone Age babies buried with love

More evidence that our ancient ancestors weren't the “heartless brute[s]”s they're often made out to be: a gravesite in Austria reveals the remains of three infants (allegedly dead for 27,000 years) who “were covered with a mammoth shoulder bone, supported by part of a tusk” and were “embedded in red och[er]” (a pigment). One of the infants “was decorated with [a necklace containing] more than 30 ivory beads.”

The find helps disrupt the common, evolutionism-driven view that the human intellect is far more advanced now than it was thousands of years ago.

6. Evolutionists Ponder Life's Inevitability

All scientists seem to recognize the extraordinary implausibility of a naturalistic origin of the first living cell-for example, this article concedes, “The appearance of life on Earth seems to face so many obstacles … that scientists often feel forced to regard it as almost miraculous . . . .”

7. National Geographic News: Family Walks on All Fours, May Offer Evolution Insight, Experts Say

Although the story of five Turkish adults who walk using their hands has been out since spring, a new PBS documentary, The Family That Walks on All Fours, has caused a resurgence in interest in the topic.