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Noah's Ark

Actually polar bears do not do well at all in the heat. Back in the '80s, we lost one in a zoo where I was working. There was a problem with the bear's pool (a visitor threw some object in that got stuck way down in the drain) that necessitated draining the pool for several days while we worked to access the obstruction and rebuild the drain. This happened to coincide with a heat wave (80s–90s F, and humid).

Our bear spent those days without his pool just lying in the cool, shady recesses of his indoor habitat, and our bear keeper tried to keep a hose running on him as much possible. After several days of this inactivity, however, he developed peritonitis, and died.

n = 1, but the effect of the heat on our bear seemed pretty clear. Animals that are adapted to swimming among ice floes aren't going to fare very well in the land of Canaan.
 
Live and learn, eh? I didn't know that.

Thanks.
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There's actually a lot of study going on right now in the paleontology world (well, comparatively anyway) about skull morphology and diet, particularly in bears. Though to be honest, I'm not sure how much I trust it--I think the technique the researcher used was called finite element analysis, and the researcher treated the teeth and the skull as one unit (probably not a huge problem, but still, something that makes me wonder--bears may be fine, but horses? camels? Not so much).

But prior to the flood, kangaroos and other animals most likely lived near Noah’s home.
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Noah lived in Gondwana?!

The Shrike said:
Actually polar bears do not do well at all in the heat. Back in the '80s, we lost one in a zoo where I was working. There was a problem with the bear's pool (a visitor threw some object in that got stuck way down in the drain) that necessitated draining the pool for several days while we worked to access the obstruction and rebuild the drain. This happened to coincide with a heat wave (80s–90s F, and humid).

Our bear spent those days without his pool just lying in the cool, shady recesses of his indoor habitat, and our bear keeper tried to keep a hose running on him as much possible. After several days of this inactivity, however, he developed peritonitis, and died.

n = 1, but the effect of the heat on our bear seemed pretty clear. Animals that are adapted to swimming among ice floes aren't going to fare very well in the land of Canaan.
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A fair point. I should have said that polar bears can handle SOME heat--they can live in areas like Northern Europe/Canada, and the temperature increase isn't killing them off, the loss of food is. Obviously an Arctic animal isn't going to do well in an Arid Tropical environment (WE don't do so hot in those conditions without precautions).
 
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As far as upper size limits for wooden ships I found this:
Athenaeus gives us a detailed description of a very large warship, built by Ptolemy Philopator (c. 244– - 205 BC). It was 130m (420 feet) long, 18m (57 feet) wide, and 22m (72 feet) high to the top of her gunwale. From the top of its sternpost to the water line was 24m (79.5 feet). In comparison the length of the Titanic was 243 m and the largest Oil Tanker around 485 m. It had four steering oars 14m (45 feet) long. It had 40 tiers of oars. The oars on the uppermost tier were 18m (57 feet) long. The oars were counter-balanced with lead to make them easier to handle though its size alone would impress and the broad deck would make a excellent weapons platform.. It had a double bow and a double stern and carried seven rams, of which one was the leader and the others were of gradually reducing size. It had 12 under-girders 275m (900 feet) long. The ship was manned by 400 sailors to handle the rigging and the sails, 4000 rowers and 2850 men in arms for a total of 7250 men. This ship was too large to be of much practical use. Some things of interest about this ship. First, there are no forests worth mentioning in Egypt. All the lumber had to be imported from elsewhere, likely Lebanon. This ship had a crew that was almost twice as large as that of the largest aircraft carrier we have ever built! Athenaeus describes other very large ships and boats of antiquity. One ship had a catapult designed by Archimedes that could hurl a 55 kg (120 pound) stone over 180 m (600 feet).
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http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/GiantShips.htm
 
From that amazing website:
Quote:
Kangaroos did not need to travel continents to get to the ark. Today kangaroos only live in Australia. But prior to the flood, kangaroos and other animals most likely lived near Noah’s home.
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Akhenaten said:
I think they were destroyed by the vast herds of Walrus that once lived there.
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So sorry, O Pharaoh, but this is a commonly held error. Teh kangos were, of course, crushed by the flocks of moas that 'most likely lived near Noah's home'.


edited to add-
The website has a guestbook, presently down for updating and also this:
http://www.bigfootcasts.com/
 
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WildCat said:
As far as upper size limits for wooden ships I found this:

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/GiantShips.htm
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7250 men. I wonder how hard it is to supply food and water to 7250 men on a catamaran in which each hull is filled with rowers and weighted oars. (ETA: and given that one cannot pull a supply ship up next to this monstrosity because there are three tiers of oars sticking out each side.)

Call me skeptical, but I am somewhat hesitant to believe such a ship existed. The military strategy of exaggerating the size of one's weapons in order to discourage the enemy is significantly older than 2200 years. In fact, men have been exaggerating the size of their weapons since the invention of the loincloth.
 
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Akhenaten said:
He's had another go, this time with a "full-sized" version, but same deal, more-or-less. This one is built on a hull made of 25 steel barges linked by a steel frame. It's supposed to be seaworthy, but I think you'd have to apply a fairly specific definition of 'sea' to make this true.

I'd normally be inclined to say this guy is demented, but there appears to be another possibility.





Link to New York Times article (with slide show)
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So 'Gopher Wood' is some kind of steel then?
 
davefoc said:
The scaling problem can be dealt with by building smaller boats and roping them together with flexible connections. It's now clear how Noah built the oild tires to be used as bumpers between the vessels though.

As to the kangaroo problem: Now you're being silly. Noah didn't need to go to Australia to get the kangaroos, wombats, koalas, etc.



http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/kangaroo.html
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If this website was correct, why are there no kangaroo, polar bear or penguin fossils in Mesopotamia?:eye-poppi
 
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