Bible geology: a tale of two Missouri caves

Last year, I took my kids to see Onondaga Cave located in Leasburg, Missouri. The state of Missouri runs this site.  The park rangers present visitors with detailed descriptions regarding the geology of the cave.  These descriptions often include time frames that run in the hundreds of millions of years.  Here’s a sample, from the Onondaga Cave website:

About a billion years ago, the Ozarks were a hotbed of volcanic activity centered about 45 miles to the southeast, in Iron and Reynolds counties. The igneous remains of this activity formed the surface of granites, rhyolites, felsites and basalts that are exposed there. These rocks are the basement layer here, about 1,000 to 1,500 feet below the cave. This basement layer is not flat but tilted. About 600 million years ago, this volcanic activity calmed and the region cooled, condensing great amounts of water vapor, which formed shallow (about 200 foot deep) seas. These seas were the birthplace of the Eminence and Gasconade formations of dolomite, chert, sandstone and shale in which Onondaga Cave is formed. It is believed that the Ozarks were uplifted above sea level (or the seas retreated, take your pick) four times before they fell for the last time about 280 million years ago. One final major uplift (of dry land) took place 50 million to 7 million years ago.

For those who enjoy exploring large case, Onondaga is a terrific place to visit. It is a place to see a spectacular natural wonder and to learn …

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On light fixtures that look like breasts

Though this is a “family” website, it is also a subversive family website. In that spirit, I’ll continue. This post was triggered by a family vacation. My family stayed in a cabin at a Missouri state park. We had a great time.   I know that the word “cabin” conjures up thoughts and images…

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Time for introverts to come out of the closet

In his article in The Atlantic, Jonathan Rauch really hit the nail on the head with his description of introversion :

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice? If so, do you tell this person he is “too serious,” or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands—and that you aren’t caring for him properly.

It’s embarrassing to be one of the last to know.  I’m 51 and I’ve always prided myself at taking the time to learn about the inner workings of human cognition.   My own way of processing information should not have so easily slipped under my own radar. Further, over the years, hundreds of people have plainly told me that my way of thinking is “different”   Without really understanding why, I’ve developed dozens of ready-to-roll reasons for declining social gatherings, especially where I suspect that chit-chat (gossip, television & movies, sports) will prevail.   When I can’t get out of such gatherings, …

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Entomopathogenic fungi: a gift from God the sadist?

Is it beautiful to see spores sneak into an ant's trachea, then creep into the ant's brain where they take over, driving the ant to insanity, causing the ant to crawl to the top of a blade of grass, where the fungi destroys the remainder of the ant's brain, then sprouts fruiting bodies…

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