Mountains under the ice

Experts have mapped the mountains under the Antarctic ice cap and determined that they are as large as the Alps.

"The surprising thing was that not only is this mountain range the size of the Alps, but it looks quite similar to the (European) Alps, with high peaks and valleys," said Fausto Ferraccioli, a geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey who took part in the research.
He told Reuters that the mountains would probably have been ground down almost flat if the ice sheet had formed slowly. But the presence of jagged peaks might mean the ice formed quickly, burying a landscape under up to 4 km (2.5 miles) of ice."[emphasis mine]

How much ice is that?

"Antarctica, bigger than the United States...contains enough of it to raise world sea levels by about 57 metres (187 feet) if it ever all melted."

Does this mean that there could have been a world-wide flood at some point? That the earth could have been much warmer, and rapidly cooled? That there was some kind of event which caused all this to happen suddenly?

What if "the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights."? Genesis 7:11-12

Fourth emptiest city

I was shocked to see Greensboro come in fourth on the list of America's Top 15 Emptiest Cities, according to rental and homeowner vacancies. I think, in our case, it's because of a new construction boom which speculators engaged in, right before the housing bubble burst. Or it could be because of the corruption and incompetence of our local government and police force.

It's funny to see us on the same list as Las Vegas, Detroit, Dayton and Atlanta.

Full-sized laptop for under $300

I never thought I'd see the day when a full-sized laptop would sell for under $300, new. The catch is that there is no meaningful operating system. The version of Linpus which comes installed on this one does not have a graphical user interface. It has decent specifications for a beginner, but the speakers are weak, and it's a little on the heavy side. I have it running Linux Mint, but I might make it a Hackintosh someday. It took me 12 days to get the Wi-Fi to work on it, so I need a rest before I wrestle with anything like Kalyway Leopard.

Acer eMachines LXN070C008 Notebook:
Intel Celeron 2.00GHz processor
Wi-fi
1GB RAM
15.4-inch widescreen LCD
120GB hard drive (mine has 160GB)
8X DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
Lithium-Ion 6 cell battery
Weight: 6.17 lb
Integrated webcam
Built-in microphone

Designed to believe in God

The UK Daily Mail Online has an article that quotes this week's issue of New Scientist as reporting that human brains are "hard wired to believe in God." We are biologically engineered to believe that things have a design and purpose, and to believe that our minds are separate from our bodies.

Now, what evolutionary purpose would that serve?

Even scientists can stumble on Truth now and then. The Bible says "...the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness..." Romans 2:15 ESV