{"id":67521,"date":"2018-11-18T23:09:37","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T06:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=67521"},"modified":"2018-11-18T23:09:37","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T06:09:37","slug":"more-apparent-than-real-flowering-plants-appeared-much-earlier-than-darwin-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/11\/more-apparent-than-real-flowering-plants-appeared-much-earlier-than-darwin-thought.html","title":{"rendered":"“More apparent than real: Flowering plants appeared much earlier than Darwin thought”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sydney's<\/a>
The Sydney Opera House, within walking distance of our current hotel (Photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0) \u00a0\u00a0Of only minimal and indirect relevance to this blog entry, but . . . well, it\u2019s pretty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few very recent science-related items that have caught my notice:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWant to enjoy a longer, happier life? Just keep on working: Life expectancy is rising but Britons are being encouraged to retire early. That\u2019s both ridiculous and costly, says an expert\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since I was a fairly young boy I\u2019ve thought that early retirement \u2014 or retirement in general \u2014 was risky. \u00a0Not that people shouldn\u2019t ever step away from work, but that they should continue to be occupied and involved in meaningful activity. \u00a0(One of the many things that I love about the Church and its teachings is the continued involvement and relevance of older people, in such things as temple service, family history, and senior missions, as well as in strong and consciously-cultivated extended-family ties.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve probably mentioned the story before, but I well remember Bill Johnson, from the corner of the street on which I grew up in San Gabriel, California. \u00a0I knew his wife, Alice, considerably better; she was a good friend of my mother\u2019s. \u00a0(He, by contrast, seemed to my young eyes to be a rather anti-social curmudgeon.) \u00a0Bill had apparently been an exceptional athlete when young, a member of the Scottish national soccer team or some such thing. \u00a0But he retired fairly early from whatever job he held, and I remember him sitting in his undershirt\u00a0out on his front porch, day after day, drinking beers and listening to sports on the radio. \u00a0I recall thinking, as I regularly walked or bicycled by the Johnson home, that his existence seemed entirely pointless and without social contacts. \u00a0And he died not long after his retirement.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t actually know the immediatecause of his death, but, fairly or not, I concluded very early on \u2014 from observing Bill \u2014 that a life without purpose or meaningful activity will tend to be a short one. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen little or nothing since then to change my mind.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet the study passed peer review before it was published in one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate Scientists Discover Error in Major Ocean-Warming Study\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Incidentally, I was pleased to see the accompany photograph, which shows a scene at the Furka Pass in Switzerland \u2014 a really spectacular place that relatively few tourists see.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a piece that uses the same serious error as an occasion for reflecting on the potentially dangerous clamor, in some circles, to suppress dissent on contentious issues:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Scientific Consensus Is Corrected by a Skeptic\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interesting, this:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDarwin\u2019s \u2018abominable mystery\u2019 more apparent than real: Amber find adds to evidence flowering plants appeared much earlier than the great naturalist thought.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 A few very recent science-related items that have caught my notice: \u00a0 \u201cWant to enjoy a longer, happier life? Just keep on working: Life expectancy is rising but Britons are being encouraged to retire early. That\u2019s both ridiculous and costly, says an expert\u201d \u00a0 Since I was a fairly young boy I\u2019ve thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"More apparent than real: Flowering plants appeared much earlier than Darwin thought"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    A few very recent science-related items that have caught my notice:   "Want to enjoy a longer, happier life? 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