Tuesday, the deadliest outbreak of tornadoes in over 20 years killed more than 50 people across Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. The storm on Wednesday produced blizzard conditions across Wisconsin, while snow in Chicago forced the cancellation of at least 900 flights at O'Hare Airport.
Major weather concerns are usually connected to eclipse charts. In this case the lunar eclipse of August 28, 2007 placed a potent Venus-Neptune opposition over the eastern Plains and southern Mississippi Valley. The opposition at 19 Leo/20 Aquarius was triggered on the 3rd and 4th by transit Mercury and was part of the basis for the February 3-6 Weather Alternative forecast calling for precipitation over the Plains and Mississippi Valley on those dates.
A 20 to 30 degree temperature drop is on the way for the country's midsection accompanied by biting winds tomorrow (8th) into Saturday (9th) fulfilling the next Weather Alternative long-range forecast. This one called for strong winds to afflict the Mississipp Valley area between February 6-8.February 2008 Weather Outlook
Introduction to the Weather Alternative
How Long-Range Forecasts Are Made
When Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, he could offer no good cases of natural selection because no one had looked for them. He drew instead an analogy with the artificial selection that animal and plant breeders use to improve domesticated varieties of animals and plants. By breeding only from the woolliest sheep, the most fertile chickens, and so on, breeders have been spectacularly successful in altering almost every imaginable characteristic of our domesticated animals and plants to the point where most of them differ from their wild ancestors far more than related species differ from them.
The analogy to artificial selection is misleading. Plant and animal breeders employ intelligence and specialized knowledge to select breeding stock and to protect their charges from natural dangers. The point of Darwin's theory, however, was to establish that purposeless natural processes can substitute for intelligent design. That he made that point by citing the accomplishments of intelligent designers proves only that the receptive audience for his theory was highly uncritical.
Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson
1 comment:
I was too preoccupied with the start of a heavy cold on Saturday the 9th, to think about the astrology of the rapid invasion of heavy cold outside -- but I was certainly impressed. Between late morning and early evening of the 9th here in Minneapolis, the temperature dropped 25 degrees F! And the wind really kicked up behind the storm front, blowing the new snow off the lakes onto nearby streets. Outside the metro area, going anywhere was very risky. A number of main routes were shut down.
I was a bit surprised, since I've long noted the coincidence of cold waves with full moons in the winter. But this was a few days after a new moon eclipse. Maybe the full moon will bring another shot of the arctic.
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