Re: A bolide did it! No... not really.

["Justin Kennard" <justinkennard@iprimus.com.au>]

Now I am no student of human behaviour  but you have to admit one thing
and this is why I think the Impact theory is the one that people tend to
believe, is that Dinosaurs are Huge Massive Wonderful things   Violent and
Terrible, Beautiful and strange.  and I think we as humans hero-a-fy them
.Therefore  what sounds more Heroic?  Going out in a blaze of glory (massive
astroid impact   imagine the fireball!)  or going out with a whimper
(brrrrrrr its cold here  think ill have a lie down and not get up)
Just thoughts from a layman
Justin
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MariusRomanus@aol.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 6:09 AM
Subject: Re: A bolide did it! No... not really.


> Mr. Lovejoy, yes, I agree with you when you say the stories are
circumstantial, and thanks for posting them.
>
> Think about it... Signs from the sky, especially comets, meteors and
stars, have always been seen as signals from god and/or harbingers of
impending doom... Even if there were no objects traversing the sky at the
time, they would be made up and slapped into the story for dramatic effect.
Jesus Christ supposedly was born under what? Even if there is little in the
way of evidence to say that the *star* actually occurred, people have tried
over and over and over again to jam in a phenomenon that would fit the
*star*. The term *disaster* even means *death star*. I see these stories as
being insights into the mindset of people of those ages. Astrology is still
used today. Why?  It's not because it predicts anything.
>
> Again... It is as I wrote in my original post... The authors of the
article blaming a bolide for the cooling of climate seem to be forgetting
that it didn't just snap cold over night in the years 536-545 A.D. The Dark
Ages Cold Period actually began roughly 100 B.C. and lasted until about 700
A.D. How many historical meteor showers, as in those that happen even today,
would have taken place over such an expanse of time??? They would have been
perfect scapegoats for completely destitute people to dump their woes upon
with elaborate story telling. Just as you wrote, Dr. Clube thinks that he
has shown a peak in the Taurid-Arietids taking place at the start of the
Dark Ages. Even though we are unable to accurately predict the size or
intensity of meteor showers that occur today, giving Dr. Clube the benefit
of the doubt would be an impact loverâs dream come true. Sure, these showers
are caused by the earth entering into the debris trail of comets, and even
Tunguska is suspected !
> to have been a piece of comet Encke since the air-blast took place during
the Taurids... an idea I believe to be correct. But seriously... Imagine if
we would snap into a bad cold spell... akin to what took place when
theThermohaline Circulation weakened in the 1970s... and during that time,
years after it got cold, we had one hell of a Leonid show... the entire sky
set ablaze... and a paper is published blaming the meteors for the
weather.........
>
> I often think that the theory... the need... for impacts to be THE cause
for extinctions, particularly the KT, has become such an effective cloud of
judgment, that other, more viable alternatives, in this case for climate
change, are gingerly tossed aside as support for *The Impact-Induced Event*,
no matter how circumstantial that support may be, is sought out with an
almost religious fervor, and when found, is taken as evidence after the fact
for an already foregone conclusion.
>
> And that's really all I have to say about that.
>
> Kris
> http://hometown.aol.com/Saurierlagen/Paleo-Photography.html
>