I wanted to recommend to everyone on this list the following science-related trips to Africa and Australia, led by Dr. Greg Forbes, a board member of Skeptic magazine, a friend and colleague of mine since the early 1980s, and the leader of the Skeptics trip to the Amazon a few years ago that was so appreciated that many of the members of that expedition continue joining Greg year after year. I've been on several of these trips myself with Greg, and I can tell you that they are a fabulous learning experience and a wonderful adventure. There is nothing quite like a Greg Forbes science tour. Check it out.

Michael Shermer

Have you ever dreamed of exploring the rainforests, the outback or the Great Barrier Reef of Australia? Or maybe your dream has been to witness the migration of tens of thousands of zebra and wildebeest as they migrate across the Serengeti or to see the snow capped peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Keyna. Well stop dreaming, this summer is your chance to experience Australia (June 16-30) and/or Africa (August 10-22) and an opportunity to do so in the company of other Skeptic's Society members and their families.

If Australia has ever been of interest to you, this is your opportunity to see kangaroos, parrots, crocodiles, sea turtles, wallabies, flying foxes and dingoes in the wild. We will explore rainforests in New South Wales and Queensland (via aerial walkways suspended in the forest canopy) along with arid outback regions and of course, the Great Barrier Reef including three days on a small tropical island . We will begin our tour in Sydney and work our way up the east coast. And at the end of the trip you can even visit New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji or Hawaii for an additional $150.

But, lets not forget Africa. Kenya is truly the crown jewel of Africa with respect to animal, habitat, plant and cultural diversity. We will travel in August in order to catch the migration of the massive herds of animals as they migrate up from the Serengeti in Tanzania. During our safari, you will be able to see hundreds of elephants, dozens of lions, cheetah, leopards, hyenas, warthogs, ostriches and thousands of zebra, antelope, gazelle and wildebeest and all close up. In fact, we commonly have to stop our safari vans to let the animals pass. We will also explore the cultures of Kenya by visiting actual Maasai and Samburu villages. This is not Disneyland but the real thing! All of this against the backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya and the comfort and safety of travel that Kenya is known for world-wide. And for those interested, you can even stop over in Europe for $100. Wow!

I have been leading these expeditions and others for 18 years and Australia and Africa remain my favorite destinations. The detailed itineraries and travel information for the Kenya Safari and the Australian Adventure are posted at www.naturalselections.org . If you do not have access to the web, please contact me and I will send you a printed copy.

If you are interested in either of these expeditions, please let me know as soon as possible as spots are very limited and they fill within several weeks after opening. This is do in part to their great price; Australia $3,999 and Africa $4,795. These are complete costs including air, food, lodging, guides, park fees, etc. These prices are $1,500-$2,000 below market for the exact same trips with any ecotour company and $2,000-$3,500 below the cost of nongroup travel and there are no corners cut. Great lodging, great food, great naturalists, great Skeptical companions! Hope that you can join our group this year. Just say yes, you have always dreamed of it. Now you can make your dream come true.

Take care, Gregory Forbes, PhD gforbes@naturalselections.org (616) 234-3985

Expedition Leader

Dr. Gregory Forbes is a member of the Skeptic Editorial Board and a Professor of Zoology and Marine Biology at Grand Rapids College in Michigan where he also serves as Director of its Science Education Center. Dr. Forbes is also the Education Director of the Michigan Scientific Evolution Education Initiative, a state-wide initiative to promote evolution education in Michigan's schools. Dr. Forbes has been leading natural history field study courses and expeditions for over 18 years. He began teaching marine biology field courses along the Sea of Cortez in Mexico and has subsequently led numerous academic courses and expeditions to such locales as Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Queensland's rainforests, the Sierra Nevada, Mexico's Baja California, the Galapagos Islands, the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Hawaiian Islands, the Brazilian Amazon, the tropical forests and reefs of Jamaica, the Channel Islands of the Pacific and East Africa.

Dr. Forbes has visited and studied the natural history of Costa Rica, Queensland, Nicaragua, Hawaii, Brazil, New South Wales, Jamaica, Baja California, the Yucatan Peninsula, Fiji, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Tasmania, the Netherlands, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. Greg's doctoral research and his current research interests deal with the feeding ecology of green sea turtles along the Great Barrier Reef in tropical Australia where he lived for two years. Greg possesses a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Management / Wildlife Management, a Master of Science degree in Biological Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Zoology and also Tropical Environmental Studies.

Every year about this time (XMAS) this old chestnut nonsense about how NASA discovered the missing day from the Bible makes the rounds in urban legend heaven (also known as cyberspace). Below is the standard account, along with a nice rebuttal from Samuel Larson, a Skeptic reader from JPL, the place where these NASA scientists are busy spending your tax dollars looking for missing days.

NASA and the Bible

This is too cool. It seems that NASA has just scientifically proven that the Bible is true (tell me something I didn't already know, huh?) For all the scientists out there and for all the people out there who find the truth of the Bible hard to swallow, here's something that shows God's awesome creation and shows that He is still in control. Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called "myth" in the Bible is true? Mr.. Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore, Maryland and a consultant in the space program, relates the following development.

"I think one of the most amazing things that God has done for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland. They were checking the position of the sun, moon, and planets out in space where they would be 100 years and 1000 years from now. We have to know this so we won't send a satellite up and have it bump into something later on in its orbits. We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite, and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down. They ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong either with the information fed into it or with the results as compared to the standards. They called in the service department to check it out and they said, "What's wrong?" Well, they found there is a day missing in space in elapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore their hair. There was no answer. Finally, a Christian man on the team said, "You know, one time I was in Sunday School and they talked about the sun standing still." While they didn't believe him, they didn't have an answer either, so they said, "Show us." He got a Bible and went back to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with "common sense." There they foun d the Lord saying to Joshua, "Fear them not, I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee." Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy and if darkness fell they would overpower them. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That's right - "The sun stood still and the moon stayed - and hastened not to go down about a whole day!" (Joshua 10:12-13) The astronauts and scientists said, "There is the missing day!" They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes - not a whole day. They read the Bible and there it was "about (approximately) a day". These little words in the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes you'll still be in trouble 1,000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits. As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the sun went BACKWARDS. The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but they got out the Book and read these words in 2 Kings that told of the following story: Hezekiah, on his death bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said "Do you want the sun to go ahead 10 degrees?" Hezekiah said "It is nothing for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees." Isaiah spoke to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees BACKWARD! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in Second Kings make the missing day in the universe!" Isn't it amazing? References: Joshua 10:8 and 12,13 and 2 Kings 20:9-11.

Forward this to as many people who you believe would think this is equally as cool. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

My rebuttal:

There are so many problems with this account that it cannot be believed. First, no one checks where the planets will be when they launch a satellite. A satellite orbits the Earth and cannot possibly hit the moon or planets. Even when they launch a spacecraft out of Earth orbit, they don't check planetary positions unless they intend to rendevouz with the planet. The odds of accidentally hitting a planet or the moon in the vastness of the solar system are "astronomically" low. It's very hard to hit one even when you're trying! NASA launches spacecraft through the asteroid belt all the time, never checking where the thousands of asteroids are. The odds of hitting one are so low that it's not worth the effort. The Cassini spacecraft recently made it through the asteroid belt on its way to Saturn.

But the main problem with it is, you enter planetary orbital positions into this computer and run it forward or back. That makes sense, it's just simple orbital mechanics. But how does the computer know there's a problem 2000+ years ago? It would have to find a discrepancy between the prediction of the planetary positions back then based on today's measurements, and the actual measured positions back then. There were no measurements back then accurate enough to reveal a missing 40 minutes in time. And as long as we have accurate measurements today, we will not "be in trouble 1000 years from now", regardless of what happened in the past.

Finally, astronauts do not do this kind of work!
Samuel B. Larson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive Mail Stop 306-392
Pasadena, CA 91109
(818) 354-4881