News to Note, March 20, 2010

1. Hobbits from Indonesia?

Did “hobbits” inhabit Indonesia’s Flores Island more than a million years ago?

2. Gaseous Planet May be Rocky

A faraway gaseous planet may also be, in a metaphorical sense, “rocky”: astronomers hope it will be a “Rosetta stone” for exoplanetary research.

3. Molecules Found in Orion Nebula

It isn’t alien life, but it’s the closest thing to it that routinely excites astronomers: the stuff that life is made of.

4. Creator of “Clergy Letter Project”: Michael Zimmerman

Some News to Note readers may find the name Michael Zimmerman rings a bell. If so, don’t be surprised; Zimmerman is the creator of the “Clergy Letter Project” and its “Evolution Sunday” event.

5. Cincinnati.com: “[Northern Kentucky] Business Bookings up in 2009”

Our Creation Museum continues to draw visitors to the greater Cincinnati area—and looks forward to another exciting spring/summer season with many more new visitors, God willing.

The museum was recently given the “Star of Tourism” award, an honor bestowed by the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau. While 2009 saw a decline in tourism dollars brought to the region, bureau officials named the Creation Museum as one attraction that helped tourism in the region “survive” economically.

Regarding the museum, bureau president Tom Caradonio said, “I’ve been doing this for almost forty years. I’ve never seen an attraction have a turnstile blow off the door as fast as y’all’s did.” Caradonio also noted that because over half of Creation Museum visitors are from more than 250 miles away, it has helped local hotels survive.

The Creation Museum was obviously not founded as a mere tourist attraction, of course, though we thank God for the nearly one million visitors who have visited since the May 2007 opening. In fact, we hope to see the one millionth visitor to the museum some time in the next few weeks—it could even be you!

6. And Don’t Miss . . .

• A BBC News report on the “beauty and power” of Saturn’s rings suggests that the rings are reflective of the forces at work in our entire solar system. But did those rings—and that beauty and power, and the entire solar system—arise through chance processes or by God’s design?
• It may not be a direct mark of animal intelligence, but octopuses’ ability to distinguish high-definition TV from standard TV should help researchers learn more about the smart animals’ moody “personalities.”
• The skull of a skeleton found in France in 1868 suggests modern humans’ brains have been shrinking. While we disagree that the skull is as old as is claimed, the finding corresponds with studies showing that Neanderthals had large brains. While the link to intelligence is unclear, we should “keep in mind” that Adam and Eve were almost certainly more intelligent than modern humans!
• We often think of carnivorous dinosaurs as the most fearsome historical predators, but some, at least, were apparently no match for a crocodile-like creature named Deinosuchus.
• Several readers sent in news tips covering a study that indicated that dogs originated in the Middle East. We appreciate the news tips, and wanted to point readers to our coverage of an overlapping project (published separately) a few weeks back.
• Although news of atheist bus ads has died down in the past year, we must disappointedly report the recent vandalization of an atheist bus ad in Detroit. A better response is that of Christian bus ads that appeared in some cities.

Remember, if you see a news story that might merit some attention, let us know about it! (Note: if the story originates from the Associated Press, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times or another major national media outlet, we will most likely have already heard about it.) And thanks to all of our readers who have submitted great news tips to us. If you didn’t catch last week’s News to Note, why not take a look at it now? See you next week!

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